Book Review: FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S: THE SILVER EYES by SCOTT CAWTHON & KIRA BREED-WRISLEY

In honor of the new released of FNAF: The Twisted Ones, here is my review of the first book in this fantastical series, FNAF: The Silver Eyes.

Five Night’s at Freddy’s: The Silver Eyes was an incredible read that gives an insider view into the FNAF lore and world Scott Cawthon has created in the games.

The worst part about this book (yes I’m starting with the worst) is that Scott Cawthon made it clear that this book is not completely canon and does not align up with the video games. Once you finally connect all these dots and think you solve the story, Scott has to go and switch up his lore! But that doesn’t ruin this book at all, if anything it makes you try to connect little dots here and there to match up with the video game universe lore.

This book was a great addition to the FNAF world. I really enjoyed reading this story from another point of view. It gave great visual cues and was one of the few “horror YA” novels that I could actually get into.

For those who are into horror, and carnivals or old childhood tales, this book is definitely for you! It gives you a creepy, Chuck E Cheese vibe (if you haven’t heard or read about FNAF before). These scary animatronics are attacking children and have even killed in the past. Or so they thought…

The lore is expanded so beautifully that I deem it an absolute must read for YA lovers, horror enthusiasts or FNAF fans.

There are bits and pieces that seem out of place, like specific markings on floorings being described or old childhood memories that seem to appear out of nowhere, but I know Scott Cawthon – everything is important. Perhaps in the next book these silly, little descriptions and features of this book will change the way we look at FNAF forever.

I am incredibly excited to see Charlie’s story continue in the next novel (which HAS been announced! Yay!) and hopefully we might see her hinted at in any future FNAF games? Hopefully!!

Five out of five stars!

Book Review: Confessions of an English Psychopath by Jack Strange

Confessions of an English Psychopath by Jack Strange

 

I’m not quite sure what I think about this story. It is definitely a unique read – I can’t say I’ve read anything like it before. For me, I found the introduction to be…well, interesting. It didn’t hook me onto every word, but at the same time it didn’t defer me.

I would say this book is more of a niche book. You either will love it, or you won’t. It’s a very special type of humor and writing style that not everyone will love. With saying that, it is definitely a good book. Jack Strange put a lot of effort into it and you can tell. It’s well written and it’s well versed, but the audience needs to be away it’s not for EVERYBODY.

I definitely wouldn’t suggest this to someone looking for an epic adventure, a long lost romance, or just some good old crime story. It’s in it’s own little category – the niche, crime/killer/thriller novel section.

If I’m comparing it to anything, I’d like to think it’s kind of a splash of Dexter (television show) meets Kingsmen: The Secret Service Movie, and tie in a few serial killer stories as well.

The more you go into it, the “confessions” themselves are unique and telling. Somehow you like Lawrence (our main character) throughout the story despite him being pretty shady – which says a lot about Jack Strange. If he can make us like this “dislikable” character so much, he definitely has talent.

If I were to critique this novel or say something I disliked, the only thing I might have wanted was more action sooner. I found the first few chapters a little slow, but it picks up once you’re one or two chapters in.

Overall, this book wasn’t made for me. I did think it was fantastic, but it’s not the type of book that I’m personally seeking out. I would love to read more by Jack Strange because his style is by far one of the most unique I’ve ever seen, especially lately.

Four out of five stars.

Throwback Thursday Book Review: Unbelievable (Pretty Little Liars #4) by Sara Shepard

Photo via Goodreads.

Synopsis:
Who is A? Who tried to kill Hannah? Secrets will be revealed in the fourth novel (and final arc in the first quartet) of the Pretty Little Liars series.

My Review:
The fourth book in Sara Shedpard’s Pretty Little Liars gave a great ending to one of the many plot lines – who is the first A? I was very happy that this story arc came to a close, since the mystery of A was beginning to become more of a bother than an interesting plot line.

Some of the characters do seem whiny and annoying, at least by an adult’s standards, but it is fitting in the setting of the high school teenagers dealing with a crazy murderer.

This book will get you hooked from start to finish. With the tease of knowing who A is, you’ll be grasping onto this book desperately and not wanting to let it go. Each character has a different chapter and it rotates so the reader gets many points of views within this final novel within the first quartet in Pretty Little Liars.

This book moved at a good, fast paced and the plot line was well thought out. There wasn’t much more I wanted out of this book! The plot arc coming to a close made the four books arc perfectly over. I can’t wait to get the fifth book in this series! This book was not as slow in the movement of plot as the first three were! Sara Shepard seems to be getting better and better with each PLL book that comes out.

If you have watched the television series you must be aware that this series does not follow directly with the show. This series was made first, and thus there was changes.

For readers who are not as impressed with this series as I am – every quartet is a great place to stop if you don’t want to leave things off on a bad ending. Each quartet seems to have a good ending if you felt the need to stop, but there will still be a few unanswered questions. That being said, if you chose to stop here, it would help tie up most of the loose ends.

Five out of five stars! A good, quick read with great movements in plot!

Quick Book Review: Queen of America by T.J. Slee

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Book Review
Book Title: Queen of America  (Freya Eriksdottir #1)
Author: T.J. Slee
Date Read: September 26th – November 4th, 2016
Date Reviewed: November 4th, 2016

Background: I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads for an honest review.

Quick Synopsis: This book is all about female vikings, which is a nice change from seeing all men vikings all the time. Freya goes out on a mission and is determined to finish it. You follow her struggles and the adventures that vikings have. It’s a great read following strong female characters that are also vikings.

Evaluation: This book was a good read, but I felt that the style did not match with me. This book is truly beautifully written and I love the strong female characters, the exciting plot and the incredible adventures, but I just didn’t like the writing style. It felt too slow for me, but that’s because I really like to read fast paced books. Yet, this book isn’t slow by any means – TJ keeps up an amazing pace. I just found it didn’t fit well with me as a reader. Other readers will definitely like this book! It gets all my praises and awards, but as a reader I just know the types of writing styles I like to read and TJ’s writing style doesn’t match with me personally.

That being said, it’s time to get into the juicy parts of this book. You follow Freya as she goes on an adventure, but you also meet her brother Leif. Her story was truly inspiring and compelling, which had me continue and finish this book.

For people interested in viking history but want a more interesting read than a history textbook, I would definitely suggest picking this book up. It’s a great fiction read that keeps you hooked and gives you some insight into their culture.

There are definitely characters I would have loved to see more of, but other than that there’s not much else to improve on in this set of stories. It’s truly a great read and I suggest readers pick it up!

4 out of 5 stars.

Quick Book Review: Mania (The Night Walkers #3) by JR Johansson

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Mania is a great fantasy, young adult novel for any reader.

To start out with, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the previous books before starting this one. I did not, since I got this as a review novel, and boy was I confused for 75% of this book. That’s not to say this book isn’t highly addicting and incredibly interesting as a “standalone”, but having the background information from the other novels would have made this book so much better!

As a standalone, (or as I call it, Bri-anna the reviewer couldn’t find the other novels and couldn’t afford to buy them), the book was great! The author does back track and explain some of the content of the previous novels to aid the readers. So, I had a basic understanding of what was going on throughout the book.

In short, this book follows some teenagers and young adults through a sort of post apocalyptic / dystopian world. There is a virus that is going around, that makes people similar to zombies – some of them can’t sleep and don’t read, which leads them to not living long. Our main characters, half brothers Jack and Parker, are trying to find the cure which their Father left behind (but is no longer with them). Together with their friends, they must face a rivaling group bent on evil and cure this disease to aid the world.

I wish I would have read the previous books so I would have more feelings towards the characters. These characters are beautifully written, but since I didn’t know their previous relationships and personalities, I felt like I was at a loss. JR Johansson did so great building these characters in just this book, that I can’t help but wonder what happened in the two previous!

Overall, this book was great! The plot was summed up, the characters were built well, and it was an original story and plot I hadn’t heard often – it was a great spin on what could have been a very typical plot.

Three out of five stars!

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Quick Book Reviews: The Kingdom of the Sun and Moon by Lowell H. Press

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The Kingdom of the Sun and Moon was an interesting readb y Lowell H Press.

This book was clearly made for a much younger audience – perhaps middle grade? The story follows a group of mice (yes, first person animal…not my forte) and their adventures. It’s filled with courage, hope, action, adventure, talking animals, suspense and a beautifully woven tale.

I did enjoy this book, but it was not aimed for the adult audience. Younger readers would find this book way more interesting than I did. It did not have me hooked, despite the twists and turns within this. It simply didn’t move well with an adult audience, in my opinion. Lowell H Press is amazing! For a child’s book it’s great, but if I had to read this to a child I would probably get bored very quickly. I personally like stories that can sit well with both adults and children. That being said, it still had incredible benefits!

The book is visual and gives an enchanting set of descriptions as you go along. You can picture to world forming around you, which is very rare in the books I’ve read. The tale that’s woven would get kids excited – mice battles, brotherhood, friendship, courage! These are all types of topics kids are interested in! Read this to children, it’s a great read!!

Overall, I think this was a cute children’s novel. I would recommend it to schools and libraries to fill their shelves, because it’s definitely age appropriate for children.

Two out of five stars – great children’s read, did not work well for the adult audience (in my opinion).

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Quick Book Review: Perfect (Pretty Little Liars #3) by Sara Shepard

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I am so annoyed at this book but I love it at the same time! I am annoyed at wanting to know who A is and why he or she is going after Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily.

This series is continuing to bring me back to the ever frustrating life of the girls after Allison died. The novel is a very quick read and is full of twists and turns that I shouldn’t have expected (except for the fact that I have looked ahead by watching the television series Pretty Little Liars). I cannot wait to get the next novel in the series and start reading it! Hopefully soon A will make an appearance as a character!

The only thing I found wrong with the novel was some of the girls got more ‘screen’ time than the others. I would have liked to see the girls all together in some scenes, or experience more time with each of the girls by themselves. The plot was easy to follow and the chapters moved fast enough that I wasn’t getting bored.

I can’t complain about this novel! It is perfection in my eyes, except for the fact that I am desperate to know who A is! But that’s good for this kind of novel.

Five out of five stars! I love it!